Well here is, what I hope, will be the future instrument cluster for my 71 SB Flareside.




I will be looking for a 1969 F100 wiring harness. Will make things a lot easier to set up, me think.





It's not in terrible shape. I do wonder how hard it would be to find a clock or a tach that would fit and look good in the place where the vacuum gauge is.

 

Here is mine LOL.............

 

hillcountryflt - nice pics of the doggies! The wife liked their names. I hope you can get cluster shined up!

F100 - Yikes!

 

Uh oh! What are you doing to it?

 

Making something no one else has but everything I do seems to be an afterthought

 

One of the ummmmm five F500+ clusters I have now, yes I went a little crazy, needed to get repainted. I thought while I was at it, I would also poke out vacuum gauge port. I really don't want to grind on one of the bezels that has good paint but since I had to strip this one, a little grinding won't hurt. I drilled a string of 1/8" holes from the back side of the bezel using the indentation as a guide, Then I used some sprue cutters to snip the metal between the holes. It was brutal, but it worked.


It took half an hour with some files and a rotary burr to get the hole cleaned up.


Getting the curve on the inside corners taped took a few tries to get it just right.


I 3D printed some rings to mask off around the gauge holes.


Double sided tape worked great for holding the rings in place while I was painting.



Ready for some Rust-Oleum gloss black. I picked up a can of stain black but I decided at the last minute to go glossy. I'm glad I did.



The cluster on the top has original paint, the bottom is the newly painted bezel.


The 3D printed mask rings worked pretty good. It almost looked like the factory paint job with a little bit of overspray around the edges.


The new paint is on the right.


If anyone wants the mask rings, I would be happy to mail them to you.

 

MAIL THEM TO ME. Whoever may want them afterward, I'll mail them to you.



Oh and is there a reason that a little bit of the top part has black on it instead of being all chrome?

 

That is great! I may get in line for the rings

 

Jackson - are you talking about the ~1" wide strip on the horizontal part of the bezel (if it was installed in a truck)?

Dave - I can print more.


Just pm me with an address.

 

Yes that's what I'm talking about. I'll PM you an address.

Do you really have five now?

 

Dang, I thought your were going to be pumping these refurbished clusters out on ebay at a nice profit as there is guys that are hungry for them.

And being that handy hard work art work will sure pay off..
Yea Look pretty good!
Orich

 

Yes, they all look like that and I do have 5 of them. *hangs head in shame*

Thanks Rich, I've had a lot of fun collecting them and cleaning them up. I did promise the wifey I would sell a couple of them......maybe.

Nite nite.

 

I see you cutting out parts. Do you have any ideas how to fill in empty spots. Looking for an idea of how to plug the spot on my f600 panel where the vacuum gauge hangs out now.
By the way, yours look really great Tomahawk. Just started cleaning up mine some this week. Using a combination of 0000 steel wool and that oil metal shine cleaner cloth stuff.

 

Holy Cow Gavin. Good job. With as many guys who want those you really ought to do some of your 5 and sell 'em either here in the marketplace or EBAY. Put a core charge on them so your customers will send you one in return. Everybody wins.

 

Nice looking cluster after the repaint. What did you use as a stripper to get the old paint off? I finally dug out my clusters so I'll be cleaning and repainting them shortly.